Clowns: A race of mute, brightly colored beings dubbed "Clowns" in the absence of a name that they call themselves. They average about 4 feet tall and have porportions much like halflings. Their faces are absolutely featureless except for large, glowing eyes. They are (apparently) only as intelligent as a smart dog and thus are kept as pets and house-servants.

Mardaru: Mardaru exist only in space now, as their home-planet was destroyed by an asteroid storm a thousand years ago. They are tube-like beings about 9 feet long with a lamprey-like mouth at the end. Bioluminescent spots line their bodies, and tiny tentacular feet cover the bottom. They are blind, but possess an extremely powerful tactile sense. They are also powerful psionicists.

Phleig: The Phleig are known only through the technology and computers that they leave behind. They are now extinct, with the last Phleig ever, Sumoc, having died several hundred years ago. They possessed a very advanced level of technology, though most is now non-functional because their power sources were destroyed by the Phleig. Sumoc was quoted as saying that the reason for this was so that "the power source could not be used for evil."

Grammadai: These beings defy science and seem to have DNA constructed from tachyon particles. This would suggest genetic tampering, and, sure enough, they rate high on the Von Arven Genetic Tampering and Construction Notes Scale. The Grammadai themselves claim to have originated in another dimension, a tachyon universe. Birdheads dispute this claim. Grammadai average about 9 feet tall and extremely bulbous, much like a gigantic fungus-shaped blot of black with arms and legs. They have no features, being a smooth, oily, dark surface.

Tachyon-based construction? Interesting... Does this mean they can hit FTL velocity without any help?

And about the Varconians: if they rule an empire of 3000 galaxies (...Must take ages to cross between superclusters), why is everyone else tentative to use the Gate that leads to another galaxy? If the 'dumb brute' Varconians can manage intergalactic trips, the other races would probably do so out of a racial/national pride thing...

Logged

"I grab the sword!""Mmkay, you're dead.""What!?""You just grabbed the sword of the god you were just personally responsible for banishing from the world for the next ten thousand years. You just got zapped by around a billion volts of Angry Divine Power. You're dead."

Chxsuni: That's pronounced check-sow-knee. These vile, stinking creatures are known as the Outcasts, the Sickeners and the Disease-Men. They are about six feet tall on average and are so thin as to be emaciated. They wear thick, concealing robes and masks of black aluminum to hide their faces, which are shaped much like a human's face only sort of puckered and sucked into the center of the face. The only facial features besides the wrinkled, puckered skin folds are four beady black eyes. They have extremely long arms and legs. Their fingers and toes are webbed. Unlike other humanoid races, they wear no boots or gloves, even on the icy metal decks of starships. All places were Chxsuni dwell must be filled with the disgusting, acidic, and poisonous gasses of their home world, Vrxun (works-on) and these gasses seem to follow them wherever they go, lending them an incredible stench and poisonousness, and as such, they are banned from most places and are oucasts in all others. As a result, the Chxsuni are a vile, bitter, and angry people who are intent on making others sick and uncomfortable until they are granted equality.

I like the idea of a tachyonic race, though. ...I entertained that kind of notion when I saw the movie K-Pax for the first time. I'm still convinced that Prote existed at FTL velocities.

Logged

"I grab the sword!""Mmkay, you're dead.""What!?""You just grabbed the sword of the god you were just personally responsible for banishing from the world for the next ten thousand years. You just got zapped by around a billion volts of Angry Divine Power. You're dead."

If Prote was sane, he was a K-Paxian. My guess is that while K-Paxians may be perfectly material from their point of view, their tachyonic nature requires hosts if they want to interact with a nontachyonic lifeform - which would be why he looked like he did. (Not telling much more - it'd ruin it) and why the physical form was left behind, while the girl Prote took with him vanished utterly, being taken to complete FTL velocity without extricating herself from a host.

And I'd guess a tachyonic lifeform would be visible - it'd just 'jitter' in place to remain still, maybe whipping an angstrom-length back and forth constantly at many multiples of the speed of light.

I'd also guess that a tachyonic lifeform would probably be able to vary their energy levels - after all, tachyons exist in a mirror to standard particles, when velocity is considered. High-energy tachyons slow down, while low-energy tachyons speed up. In theory, if you could somehow reduce a tachyonic particle to 0 energy, it'd hit infinite velocity.

Logged

"I grab the sword!""Mmkay, you're dead.""What!?""You just grabbed the sword of the god you were just personally responsible for banishing from the world for the next ten thousand years. You just got zapped by around a billion volts of Angry Divine Power. You're dead."

The odd thing is that if you look with an open mind, the microcosmic world of quantum physics and the macrocosmic world of Einstein are fractal images of each other.

The thing that bugs me: the universe is symmetrical in nature. Where are the counterforces?

Logged

"I grab the sword!""Mmkay, you're dead.""What!?""You just grabbed the sword of the god you were just personally responsible for banishing from the world for the next ten thousand years. You just got zapped by around a billion volts of Angry Divine Power. You're dead."

While you might expect to see laser weapons in this list, the theory of the lazer is very impractical. A laser weapon would require ridiculous amounts of energy to be anything but a glorified laser pointer. In Deadspace, Masers are used instead. Masers are like lasers, but instead of light, masers use microwaves, which, if you use scientific reasoning, would be effective.

Mas-Pistol: A regular maser pistol, extremely common. Usually just shortened to pistol.

Mas-Bolter: A semi-automatic maser rifle (Like a Maser Semiauto AK47) that is the standard equipment for many Human-born militaries all over the galaxy. Usually called razzia, shortened to bolter or just called rifle.

Mas-Blade: A melee weapon that consists of a sword that projects an invisible maser field.

Pyrorocket: A rocket fired from a collapsible stand that explodes in the air, releasing many tiny incendiary bomblets. Often used for signalling due to the distinctive column of flames that trail behind it. Also called fireworks of death, pillar of fire, and fireboomer.

Mas-Burster: A heavy duty Mas-Bolter with an increased power output. It is used by governments that want to go a step above the Mas-Bolter for their militaries. Also called burster and big shooter.

Rapid Bolter: Essentially a very powerful machine gun that fires metal spikes at incredible speed. Usually considered secondary weaponry due to limited ammo. Also called machinegun and fast blaster.

Bomblet Disperser: A powerful heavy weapon that expels clusters of extremely explosive bomblets. Used for heavy suppresion. Also called bomb barfer and great gun.

Many other kinds of weapons, large and small, may be found throughout the galaxy, including, but not limited to, Human relics.

Even millenia after the end of Humans, their religious beliefs still spread. Some common religions include:

Neo-Christoislam: Essentially, Neo-Christoislam is the same as Islam, but adapted for space.

Buddhotao-Hinduism: A combination of the Toaist, Buddhist, and Hinduist religions.

the Teachings of Ra'alg: This religion contains many echoes of the Humans' Amalgamated Galactic Scientific Religion. It is an inward looking religion that proffesses worship of the various particles that make up the universe. It teaches that, as in Buddhism, one is reincarnated after death, and when they find peace within theirself and become one with Allah-al-Khali, the "God of Emptiness", who is supposedly the personified Big Bang.

Non-Human Religions: These are a huge multitude of religions all over the galaxy that are not influenced by Humans and have sprung either from Dogheads who were not exposed to Human religion, or are extraterrestrial in origin (For instance, the religion of the Varconians)